nopoet.2960

So jackals can walk on sand paths. Problem is that their aren't very many of these around. What I want is that if I walk off a cliff while riding a jackal it would automatically create a sand path. The path would remain for a bit so anyone riding behind could use it. This would use endurance so you couldn't do it forever. Might be fun to make a choice between teleporting and making a road.

If I was your dev, shortbow 5 would generate 2 initiative if you blind 3 foes with it.

Those are valid points. I think there should be some sort of minor stealth; lets call it cloak. You can stealth yourself but cloak others. Cloak immediately drops you as a target and prevents you from being re-targeted by enemies you are not targeting or enemies that are farther than 600 units away. Visually, you don't go invisible but you do go transparent. You still get revealed afterwards and it wouldn't mess with auto attack because attacking doesn't break cloak. This probably wouldn't help the fixate issue you raised but 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

Yeah, I think this is right especially after the change to Shadestep. The minor grand master slot is kind of a prominent place to stick a very situational trait. Anet take a look this.

How often are you guys triggering Panaku's Ambition? In DPS mode I never do. I haven't played support much but when I tinkered around with it blasting smoke screens was a really low priority. Are you stealthing yourself or team often? If Panaku's was replaced what would you want? I would rather it do something like: Gain Rot Venom and apply barrier to nearby allies when you exit Shadow Shroud.

There is nothing int he note about scepter but it seems faster after the patch. Anyone else notice this or am I hallucinating?

Played around with Deadeye scepter but the malice generation wasn't working. That said, once it does work it seems like it will be cool alternative. I can't really see myself playing rifle outside of deadeye. There might be a core thief staff spec using the recent accro changes but I haven't played around with it yet. You didn't ask for feed back on mainhad axe, but please consider some off-hand alternative. Here is some ideas using torch.

Scepter Deadeye... Anet you sure about this?

One simple request for Specter. Since Alc was moved from wells and revive was removed from Shadestep. Can you put revive on wells? Something like 15% on impact?

An AoE blast finisher that blinds.

No not at all! I totally would want sneak attack + opening strike to be a thing. This is especially important if you don't want to use torch. Some questions I haven't answered for myself yet are what does it mean to attack a revealed target? What does it mean to attack a revealed target with an opening strike? What would it mean to attack a revealed target with a stealth attack? That said, I think the traits could be constructed so you actually wanted to be revealed without taking the possibility of stealth away.

Out of curiosity what do you think sword/sword could bring to thief that we can't already do?

This yes, In WoW there's a skill called hunter's mark and it drops a big red arrow on your target. We should steal that.

Ok the big idea is that a Seeker is an AOE fighter with subtle hints of guardian. Could this work? Steal becomes Expose - Expose - Reveals your target and yourself Being revealed gives you access to Opening Strikes which replace your auto attack Opening Strikes: Sword - Quick strike that strikes all foes in front of you and slows your target Dagger - Roll under your target to cripple it and nearby foes Pistol - Fire an explosive round blinding foes near your target Seeker gains access to offhand Torch 3. Sword - Blazing Thrust: Use your heated sword to execute a slow powerful thrust that grants quickness if your target is under the health threshold 3. Dagger - Thermocutter: Stab your target and create firefield 3b. Dagger - Backdraft (flip over): Stab your target & hop backwards burning foes in the area 3. Pistol - Searing Round: Fire a slow moving flaming bullet that burns foes along its path 3b. Pistol- Hot Shot (flip over): Fire two ricocheting shots that critically strike burning foes 4. Blind Leap: Leap at your foe burning and blinding them 5. Purging Flames: Burn foes around you and gain fire aura 5b. Trail Blazer (Flip Over): Extinguish your fire aura by rolling (evade) in a targets direction leaving a path of flames behind you When in stealth your Torch is dosed. To relight it to must use on of the following skills Doused Torch 3. Dragon's Breath - Ignite your torch by breathing fire on it. Foes in front of you are blinded 4. Igniting Strike - Ignite your torch by striking your target using the friction light it 5. Fire Blast - Ignite your torch with explosive powder blasting fields and damaging nearby foes Utility Skills - Meditations Death (Heal) - Gain a stack of regeneration for each condition on you then heal for a percentage of damage you deal to enemies Destruction - Gain might. Critical strikes you deliver burn your foes Deception - You are revealed, your target is inflicted with major vulnerability Endurance - Gain evasion for every attack you evade you gain quickness Cleverness - Use all your initiative to burn foes around you gain initiative for each one stuck Appropriation - Shadowstep and unleash fierce attacks on nearby foes using items you steal from them Traits would focus on improving revealed, enhancing and spreading burning, and enhancing single target skill to strike additional opponents

It's not really only about fury. Fury was just an easy call out because of the Critical Strikes spec. It would also have a positive impact on acro, Thrill of the Crime, Bountiful theft, Specter, Maleficent 7, and Premeditation which is not bad for a minor trait.

I just "discovered" #2 this week and it's pretty fun. If you use an offhand dagger (I've been using main hand pistol) your rotation is something like Cloak and Dagger > Stealth Attack (both generate barrier) > (siphon if you can get it in quickly) > some well > then for me Shadow Strike > Repeater. The big ahHA was realizing that, even if you are using scepter or pistol, this is a melee spec. You can't stay at range to make it work.

We just need two more conditions! One that blocks you from getting new boons and another that prevents you from benefiting from the boons you have.

Thank you! I was. One really easy thing Anet could do to help support Specters would be to simply increase the duration of alacrity. I think it's at 4 secs. now. If they take that up to 6 it would reduce the pressure to spam wells constantly.

So I spent a little bit of time playing specter last week. The pacing is much slower than other thief specs so that took a little bit of getting used to. I was mostly frustrated with lack of stealth access. Panaku's Ambition is just smirking at me. You don't have enough initiative to use Cloak and Dagger efficiently and Black Powder + Mind shock requires perfect execution. I try not to do this with my suggestion but I ended up buffing just about everything. I just wanted to make it better at doing the things it already does. Minor Adept: Unlock scepter. Steal becomes Siphon and your initiative is reduced. Gain access to shadow force through spending initiative, and gain access to Shadow Shroud ability. Major Adept (new) Deep Shadows - Using Siphon on a foe while in Shadow Shroud ends Shadow Shroud and stealths you. Using Siphon while in Shadow Shroud on an ally ends Shadow Shroud and stealths the targeted ally. (new) Iron Shadows - Gain protection when you shadowstep. Barriers last longer on tethered ally. Consume Shadows - Gain stacks of Consume Shadows at regular intervals while in Shadow Shroud. Exiting Shadow Shroud consumes your remaining shadow force and heals allies based on the number of stacks you have gained. Allies that are fully healed receive the rest of the value in barrier. Minor Master: Dark Sentry - Apply Rot Wallow Venom to allies you grant barrier to. Outgoing healing to allies is increased. Rot Wallow Venom effect cannot apply to yourself. Major Master (updated) Larcenous Torment - Entering and exiting Shadow Shroud Torments foes around you. Torment you inflict is increased. Gain shadow force when you torment a foe. Does not grant shadow force while in shroud. (updated) Amplified Siphoning - Cast Lesser Mind Shock when Siphoning. Gain increased shadow force when hitting a foe with Siphon. Grant increased barrier when targeting an ally. (updated) Traversing Dusk - Dawn's Repose is now a showstep. Heal allies in the area around you when you shadowstep. Gain shadow force for each ally in the radius. Wells grant alacrity on their initial impact. Minor Grandmaster: Panaku's Ambition - Gain barrier when you strike foes with a stealth attack. When you apply stealth to allies you also grant them barrier. This effect can only be received once and will reset when stealth is removed. Major Grandmaster (updated) Strength of Shadows - Reduces the cool down of Shadow Shroud skills. Gain expertise based on a percentage of your vitality. Incoming damage from enemies is reduced based on the number of conditions they have. Rot Wallow Venom inflicts torment for a longer duration. (updated) Hungering Darkness - While in shroud, transfer conditions from your tethered ally and cleanse conditions from yourself. Each condition removed in this fashion heals a percentage of your base health and grants your tethered ally barrier. Grant Resolution to nearby allies when exiting Shadow Shroud. Shadestep - Siphon now grants you barrier when targeting enemies, and it revives allies when targeting them. Shadowstepping breaks your barrier and grants it to nearby allies, proportional to the number of allies affected.

Real quick suggestion. Signets of Power should provide 150 Concentration for 6 seconds when a signet recharges in addition to the initiative gain. The idea is to nudge fury uptime a little bit while encouraging people to use the Signets active effects. This might also be a benefit to certain DE builds. Trickster should also grant 1 second of evasion in addition to removing conditions. Many of the Tricks are defensive anyway. It would increase the evasion on Withdraw and Roll. Caltrops and Scorpion wire would be safer to cast and it just makes sense for Haste.

Holosmith it is! Thanks guys.

I have an engineer that I play occasionally who is currently wearing full Grieving armor. I'm trying to figure out how to spec her to take advantage of those stats without buying more gear. Any advice? I have Holo and Scrapper unlocked but not Mech. I'm not opposed to playing a core spec either.

I'd like to see stealth on Distracting Daggers on interrupt and on Well of Bounty. That would give both Daredevil and Specter a non core way to stealth.

Can I just say that shadowfall is a bizarre elite for someone who mained a thief since the beginning. They want me to jump in the middle of a crowd of enemies and pull them all towards me... repeatedly and doing no damage. That's not how to thief at all. I know it can be useful at times but it's like they are daring us to kill ourselves.

I don't want to derail the thread but I'm only talking about a .5 second stealth with the sole purpose of triggering Panaku's Ambition and the SA traits.